


At the Precipice

by Lorien (dreamofroses)



Category: Deryni Chronicles - Katherine Kurtz
Genre: Evil Empire, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Magic, Magic-Users, Rebels, Time travel (implied), soft sci-fi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-07-22 13:42:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7441408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamofroses/pseuds/Lorien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Aelian Empire has taken over the world. The conquest happened centuries ago for the Gwyneddans. Still, the Gwyneddans never fit in nicely with the rest of the Empire. Always, the threat of rebellion has hung over the province. Now, the rediscovery of the lost Haldane line has brought new hope to those hoping to separate themselves from the Empire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on fanfiction.net first, but I am now rebooting it here.

_One morning we set out, our brains aflame,_

_Our hearts full of resentment and bitter desires_

                                                                                                                                                         ~ Charles Baudelaire

 

Joseph Martel, third son of the Aelian Emperor, sat very uncomfortably in the stiff chair provided for him in his father’s spacious office. An expansive holo-screen played a newsreel of a police raid on a bar in the early hours of that morning. Joseph focused on the grain of his father’s mahogany desk, refusing to look at the screen or the irate emperor.

“I cannot even begin to express my… _disappointment_ in you,” Louis Martel said. He was a man of fifty-six years, slender with ramrod straight posture, thick, steel-grey hair and an impeccable suit. His powder-blue eyes stared coolly at the top of his son’s head, waiting for the young man to look up.

“We just want to understand _why_ ,” Empress Jeanne added, as she perched on the arm of her husband’s chair. Her tone indicated an attempt at motherliness but she fell short somewhere. Perhaps it was the plastic surgery which, successful in making her look nearly as young as her son, had robbed her of all the tender expressions that accompanied motherly concern.

“Why _what_?” Joseph asked, a hint of frustration creeping into his voice. He was still dressed in his clothing from the night before, rumpled but flashy club clothing, and his thick chestnut hair, inherited from his father, was mussed. “For the hundredth time, I didn’t do anything _wrong_.”

“They were selling illegal substances there, Joseph,” his mother said.

“I didn’t _know_ ,” he insisted.

“You were seen soliciting a prostitute.”

“I— _What?_ ” For the first time, Joseph looked up. His handsome features were frozen in a mask of shock and horror as he looked at his mother. “I never—I _would_ never—I mean, why would I even—?”

“At this point,” the emperor said, “it isn’t a matter of what you did or did not do or even know. That is the story the press has their hands on and that is what they are running with. ‘The playboy prince strikes again.’ Even if we had time to make a statement, which we _didn’t,_ the damage is already done in the eyes of the public. You are a _disgrace_. As it stands, you are _third_ in line to inherit and—“

“And unless dear Henri’s _Paul_ figures out how to conceive sometime soon or Adrien, oh excuse me, Brother whatever-he-wants-to-be-called decides he doesn’t want to be a _monk_ anymore, I _will_ inherit and you’re concerned I don’t take it seriously enough. We’ve had this conversation before, Father.”

"Apparently we need to have it again because you haven’t learned the lesson.”

“You act like I’m the only one who’s ever done anything _wrong_ around here.”

“Your _brothers_ weren’t caught in a drug bust, soliciting a prostitute.”

“ _Allegedly_ soliciting a prostitute, I didn’t do it.”

“So you admit to the drugs?”

“I’m _clean_.”

“We thought we were doing the right thing when we sent you to that military academy but the friends you made there weren’t the most savory lot,” the empress said.

“So, what, you’re going to put me in the army now, is that it?” Joseph asked incredulously.

"No, we can’t afford you getting any worse than you are now,” Louis said.

“Gee, thanks, _Dad_.”

"Your father and I have decided that it would be for the best if you stepped out of the public sphere for a while. You haven’t been putting much effort into your schoolwork lately and we believe that it is time for you to focus on your studies,” Jeanne added.

"Wow, I thought that would be worse. Can do, Ma.”

“In Gwynedd,” his father amended.

“ _Where_?”

“The province of Gwynedd. I am sure you’ve heard of it.”

“Ah, yeah, the war zone.”

“It is not a war zone.”

“That’s what it looks like on the news.”

"You’ve never seen a war zone, boy.”

“Neither have you. The last _war_ we had, which was against natives with _spears_ , by the way, was almost two and a half centuries ago. So, I think it’s fair to call Gwynedd a war zone.”

"The situation in Gwynedd is…difficult, yes, but it is well in hand. That is why we, your mother and I, have decided that it would be best for you to learn what real leadership is over there.”

“Real leadership, yeah, of people who don’t want to be led. If you ask me—“

“I didn’t.”

"If you ask me, we should just give up on Gwynedd. Cut our losses.”

“We have held Gwynedd for more than five hundred years. A little turmoil is no cause to give up what is rightfully ours.”

“I think there’s a bit more than ‘a little turmoil’ over there.”

“ _Besides_ ,” Jeanne said, cutting off the argument between father and son, “the University of Rhemuth is a very good and very old school. The best families in Aelia have been sending their children there for _centuries_.”

“You’re just saying that.”

"No, it’s true, the university was started by that barbarian king all the way back in the twelfth century. I mean, it _was_ started to study magic or some superstitious thing like that but that was the Middle Ages, things have changed since then. And haven’t you always said that you just want to fit in? Be normal? Or some nonsense like that? Well, now’s your chance. Gwynedd is so far off the beaten track that the people probably won’t even recognize Aelia’s youngest prince.”

"What you mean is that the entire province is like a backwater hovel.”

“It’s…rustic.”

“You might is well send me to the rainforest. I’d probably be safer what with all of the poisonous spiders and snakes and piranhas.”

“Jo…”

“You sound like a melodramatic old woman,” the emperor said.

“You’re exiling me to what is probably the most dangerous and least technologically advanced province in the entire empire for something I didn’t do. I have a right to be angry.”

“You have no rights. You have been an embarrassment to this family, creating scandal after scandal since you were twelve years old. It is time for you to grow up and learn some responsibility. You are no longer a child.”

“Well, since I have no rights and no say in any of this, I’m surprised you even called me up here to chat. You could have saved yourself the trouble and slipped a plane ticket under my door. It would have been faster.” Joseph stood.

“Where are you going?” Louis demanded.

“Apparently I have some packing to do.”

"I have not dismissed you yet.”

“I do not think we have anything else to talk about.”

The emperor sighed. “Fine. Go.”

Joseph nodded curtly to his mother and father before turning on his heel and storming out, looking more like a petulant child than he had intended.

“I hope that we’ve done the right thing,” Jeanne fretted, delicately gnawing on her bottom lip.

“The boy needs to learn his lesson and I’m afraid this is the only way he’ll do it.”

 

“So?” Joseph opened the door to his apartment to find his two best friends waiting for him in anxious anticipation. Neither of them had changed since the night before and Alice’s makeup showed the hours, smudged and smeared as it was. She jumped up off her chair at the prince’s arrival, eyes wide. It was she who had spoken.

“Not good.”

“What happened?” she asked, voice cracking.

“They don’t believe me…about any of it.” Joseph collapsed on his sofa, the importance of what his parents had just told him still sinking in. Alice’s features, initially taut with fear, crumpled at the realization of those fears.

“Julien, say something.” The prince’s other friend had been trying to remain unnoticed until now, sitting motionless and saying nothing but, with that attempt failed, he snapped at Alice.

“What do you want me to say?”

“It was your idea for us to go to that stupid club.”

“ _I_ didn’t know, any more than either of you did. And that prostitute was an accident.”

"Yeah, they thought that was me,” Joseph said.

“What? Why?” Alice asked.

“I don’t know,” the prince answered with a sigh. “The press wanted to spice up the story, I guess. ‘The screw-up prince and the prostitute.’”

“You’re not a screw-up, Jo,” Alice insisted. “You just like to live a little more than some other people. But…what’s going to happen now?”

“To you and Julien? Nothing, unless you happened to get picked up by the cops last night. Then, you might even get your own scandal story, on page ten, or something like that. As for me, their Royal Majesties have decided it’s time for me to be re-educated, again.”

“Where are they sending you this time, Fort something-or-other?”

"Gwynedd.”

"Fort Gwynedd? Have you ever heard of it, Julien?”

“Not _Fort_ Gwynedd, you dunderhead,” Julien said, grumpily, “ _Just_ Gwynedd. It’s a province way out in the boonies. There’ve been a lot of problems there ever since it was annexed into the empire. Didn’t you ever pay attention in history class?”

“Don’t call me a dunderhead,” Alice pouted.

“Things have stabilized there a bit recently but it’s still not a particularly safe region. Why are they sending you there?”

“To teach me how to ‘lead’,” Joseph answered.

“From what I can tell, the people of Gwynedd don’t want to be led. Even when they had their barbarian kings they were always trying to get rid of them.”

“That’s what I said, but I’m starting to think that’s the point. They want me to struggle to rule those stupid, stubborn rednecks so I can see how hard it will be to be emperor and that will scare me onto the straight and narrow.”

“So you had the emperor talk again?”

“It’s kind of inevitable. Henri might make a good emperor but he’s as gay as they come and even if he and Paul adopt, the kid won’t be in the succession. Adrien’s gone all monk on us. Given up all worldly possessions, which includes the crown. I think he’s given up sex, too, so there won’t be any kids coming from there, either. That just leaves little old me.”

“I think it’s cool that you’ll be emperor,” Alice said.

“I hope that Henri lives a _very_ long time,” Joseph replied.

“I think the whole empire hopes that,” Julien muttered just loud enough for the other two to hear him.

“Julien!” Alice gasped. If she had been close enough, she would have kicked him. As it was, she glared across the room at him.

“He’s right, though,” Joseph pointed out.

“I don’t care!” Alice insisted. “But, I mean, well, if he is right, then this could be your chance to show them all how wrong they are. You’re going to be the best emperor ever and those people in Gwynedd are going to simply adore you.”

“You’re dreaming,” Julien said. He looked helplessly over at Joseph. “She’s dreaming.”

“I know,” Joseph replied.

“So, when are you leaving?” Julien asked as Alice waxed dramatic on Joseph’s perfect future reign.

“I don’t know,” the prince said, “but it’s probably soon. They don’t want me here long enough to work up another scandal or anything, I’m sure.”

“Soon?” Alice had caught Joseph utter that word and she repeated it, hopelessness in her tone. “You _have_ to let me help you pack, then. Because, if you don’t, you’re going to pack all sorts of stupid stuff that you don’t need and then, when you get to Gwynedd, you’ll remember all of the important things you forgot and then what will you do? You won’t have them.” Alice’s voice cracked on the last sentence as she tried to hold back her tears.

“I wouldn’t dream of having it any other way, Lili,” Joseph said, knowing exactly what to say to calm his oldest friend before she dissolved into hysterics.

“Really?”

Joseph nodded. Julien coughed and stood up.

“Well, I think I’d just be in the way here if I stay so why don’t I head home? I’ll see you around before you go, I’m sure, Jo,” he said.

“That sounds good,” Joseph said.

“Ah, bye,” Alice said, a little coldly. She stared at Julien as he walked out.

Alice and Julien fought like this so frequently and they always made up that Joseph was not concerned about what would happen to them after he left. In a few weeks, after Alice had forgotten why she was angry, they would be the best friends in the world once more. It was as inevitable as their next fight would be. They were, neither of them, particularly easy to get along with, so Joseph supposed it was a miracle that they were even friends in the first place.

“So, let’s start with your clothes,” Alice said, pulling open the sliding doors to Joseph’s bedroom and going directly to the closet. She picked a suitcase chip off of a hook and plugged it in. “We don’t know how much memory the closets in Gwynedd have so we should start with the basics and we don’t want to frighten the natives with your fabulous fashion sense so nothing too flashy either. What’s the weather like in Gwynedd?” As she asked the question, Alice motioned with her hand, the sensor ring on her finger catching the attention of the apartment computer which pulled up a holo-screen displaying the average weather in Gwynedd. “Never mind. Show me a map of Gwynedd.” The screen complied. “All right, so there’s only one really big city in Gwynedd. Rhemuth, is it? There are some others, I suppose, but I think it’s safe to assume that you’ll be spending most of your time in Rhemuth.”

"That’s where the university is,” Joseph said, sitting on his bed as he watched his friend work. She wasn't listening to him anyway.

“Show me the weather for Rhemuth.” The screen displayed the current weather in the city of Rhemuth. “Not _right now_ , I mean _average_. Stupid computer.” The screen displayed the average weather in Rhemuth. “ _Thank you_.”

Alice waved her hand at the closet, pulling up another screen with images of clothing on it. “All right. _Now_ …” Alice began flipping through the images, using her hand to indicate the direction she wanted them to go and at what speed. “No. No. No. Yes. Maybe. Jo, get over here and try this on.” She made the motion of grabbing the image of a shirt and tossing it in Joseph’s direction. It pulled up another screen which, when Joseph stood behind it, gave a decent impression of what the shirt would look like when he wore it. “Okay, that’s a yes. Now these.” Alice sent some trousers in Joseph’s direction. “Ah, no. Never mind those.”

 

Two days later, Joseph was at the airport and trying to ignore the buzz of the crowd that had come to see him off. They were mostly reporters, hoping to get one little bit of news out of him that the others couldn’t. The royal family had made a statement concerning Joseph’s departure but it was so vague that no one was really satisfied. The intention was to keep it that way.

He’d already said goodbye to his parents and brothers the night before. Breakfast had been with Alice and Julien, the former crying during the entire meal. She’d asked him if he was sure he had everything packed more times than his own mother had. With no one to say goodbye to at the airport, there were no tearful farewells for the press to catch. Instead, all they saw was a team of burly, black-clad bodyguards surrounding the prince as he walked across the tarmac to the royal jet.

Inside the plane, he turned on some music just loud enough to drown out the sound of the plane’s engines, ordered a drink from one of the lovely flight attendants and endeavored to forget both what he was leaving behind and where he was going.

After one drink, and then another, and about an hour’s worth of mind numbing games, Joseph made the decision that the flight was best spent asleep. Despite the amount of travelling a prince was expected to do, Joseph rarely made such a decision. There was always something to do while flying. Films could be watched, music listened to, homework finished, games played, if all else failed it was even a good time for introspection, not that Joseph was often caught engaged in introspection. This time was different. He’d never been exiled to a god-forsaken province before and for how long? If he was lucky, maybe only a year. If not? He might be stuck in Gwynedd until graduation in four or five years. If he was particularly unlucky it could be longer. With all of these unpleasant thoughts bouncing around in his head, Joseph couldn’t concentrate on anything fun and he certainly didn’t want to _purposefully_ think. Instead, sleep was his best option.

When he woke up, they were less than an hour out from Gwynedd and the flight attendant was offering him food. He declined the meal in favor of a light snack in case the Gwyneddans offered him food on landing. Munching on the fruit provided, he watched news footage from Gwynedd to prepare him for what was ahead.

The first thing Joseph noticed about Gwynedd on landing was the large crowd that had gathered for his arrival. That would never have happened in Aelia proper. Then he saw that the crowd was made almost entirely up of university age people dressed in the very best and almost latest clothing. More soldiers than Joseph would have imagined necessary milled about the perimeter with machine guns.

Before this sank in, his hand was taken by a short, round, sweaty man in the most pristinely cut suit money could buy. “Your Highness, it really is an honor to host you here in our humble province. We are very proud…” He continued speaking but, smiling, Joseph tuned him out. It was the same speech he always heard about how honored they were and how magnanimous he was and how wonderful the whole situation was, even though Joseph was certain that this man, Thomas de Beauchamp, the governor of Gwynedd, knew exactly what circumstances led the prince to visit his “humble province”.

“This is my wife, Stéphanie,” de Beauchamp was saying, as he led the prince closer to a stately woman in her mid-forties. She looked very natural, Joseph thought. Either she had the best plastic surgeon on the planet or she hadn’t had any surgery. If that were true, she was a rare woman. Stéphanie de Beauchamp curtseyed before her prince.

“And this is my son, Philippe. He’s about your age so I’m sure you’ll be good friends.” Thomas spoke as if the two young men were ten rather than twenty and, by looking at Philippe de Beauchamp, he was used to the treatment. Philippe took after his mother, which was preferable to his father, but he gave the impression of being an air-head. He might be fun at parties but he wouldn’t be good for much else. Looking around at the others, Joseph was struck by the same impression. He may just have found the party school in the University of Rhemuth.

"Now, you must be famished after that long plane ride,” Thomas continued. “We have reservations at the finest restaurant in Rhemuth. We may be a little off the beaten path but I think we’re better for it.” He laughed and slapped Joseph on the back.

The crowd took this cue and began moving as one towards the parking lot. Even more soldiers milled about there, looking menacing. Joseph glanced around for the governor’s car and almost missed it until he saw the governor climbing into the back. The reason for this was that the car looked less like a passenger vehicle and more like a tank, and one used for active duty at that.

“Is this really necessary?” he asked once they were all inside.

“No,” Philippe answered sullenly. His father glanced at him uncomfortably and chuckled.

“We value safety here in Rhemuth, just like you do back home, I’m sure. It’s just that we can’t always get flashy things out here.” Joseph caught the hint of bitterness in the governor’s voice and decided not to ask any more potentially sensitive questions.

Looking out the tank’s small window, Joseph noticed that the streets were all but empty.

“It’s past curfew,” Philippe said, noticing Joseph’s interest out the window. “Native Gwyneddans aren’t allowed outside anymore tonight.”

“Oh,” Joseph replied, wondering how bad the violence really must have been to warrant a measure like that. As he looked on at the almost empty streets, he began to read the few lit up signs. Almost all of them were subtitled in another language which, try as he might, Joseph couldn’t read.

"What’s that other language on the signs?” he asked impulsively.

“Oh,” the governor said, chuckling, “that’s just the native dialect. The Gwyneddans are stubborn about that.”

The governor obviously didn’t know the definition of a dialect. This language was completely different from Aelian, or even any Aelian dialect he’d ever heard. This was a completely different language, perhaps one of the last few in existence after the 19th century reforms that prohibited the teaching of native languages in schools.

Watching the soldiers patrol empty streets in the light of dual-language signs, Joseph began to truly comprehend for the first time what sort of world, and it felt like a different world, his father had sent him to.


	2. Chapter 2

  _I’m nobody! Who are you?_

_Are you nobody, too?_

                                                                                                                                ~Emily Dickenson

 

Marin MacEwan had been born in 1091, but no one would have guessed it by looking at her. She looked every inch the modern woman as she marched through the halls at the University of Ratharkin in sturdy heels and a sharp skirt suit. Her white-blond hair was plaited and pinned up circling her head. Beyond her appearance, Marin held two PhDs and was a beloved professor of medieval history at the university. She had also raised two children on her own and mastered the powers available to her by her deryni heritage, though the latter was, by necessity, a secret.            

In her youth, Marin had witnessed the medieval persecution of the deryni and, though what she saw had been blunted by the highlanders' inclination against the fanaticism that took hold in the lowlands, she could imagine what it was like elsewhere in Gwynedd and yet none of that was quite like the terror possible when the powers of a fully modern society turned itself to the task of eliminating an undesired portion of the population. Only the protestation of the citizenry in defense of their own skins, fearing the skeletons that could be well buried in their families' pasts, for it had long since been proven that one could be deryni without knowing it, had prevented a mass DNA testing which would have settled the matter entirely within a year. The potential for such large scale death was a sickening reality, as previous generations had attempted it—though to ultimate failure because their methods of deryni detection had proven inadequate to the task.            

That Marin had been able to master the deryni arts or, indeed, that there had been anyone to teach them to her was nothing short of a miracle. She had debated fiercely with herself whether she should pass the knowledge, and thus the danger, on to the children in her care. Deeply religious, even in an age inundated in the ideals of secularism and the push towards atheism, many a tearful prayer had entreated God for the strength to make the right decision. Ultimately, however, the decision and been out of her hands as the children were not hers and, heirs to an ancient royal line, they were destined for something greater than she had the authority to control. The children had been trained and, now grown, they were formidable in their own rights.            

Zachary was how she called the elder child. It was the name that had been favored by his mother, Marin's now deceased best friend. His real name, Michael Cluim Ifor Gwydion Haldane, was too dangerous to use. He was fair like his mother had been but his grey eyes were supposedly the remnants of the Haldane legacy. Whether that was true or not, it gave rise to the irrational belief among the rebels that this was proof of Zachary's claim to the throne.            

Rhiain was, at nineteen, four years younger than her brother. Her royal name, Esmeline Louise Sivorn Rosane Haldane, was favorably shed for a modern feminization of the name Rhys. That she was named for the ancient deryni healer and son-in-law of the largely forgotten deryni saint, Camber, had apparently escaped the notice of the officials in charge of hunting down deryni for, if it had not, she would have spent her life under a level of scrutiny that she could not have survived for long. Thankfully, she had been born during a time of patriotic feelings that led to a slew of old Gwyneddan names coming back into favor and the fact that many of the historical figures who had borne them were deryni had been blurred by time. She shared her brother's eye color but she bore her father's raven locks in silky curls. She had grown into a beautiful young woman but her delicate features disguised the passions the boiled inside her.

Both Zachary and Rhiain lived in Rhemuth now and attended the university there due to its connection to medieval Gwynedd, the Haldane line, and the deryni. Marin's position kept her in the west and she missed the both of them dearly. They both kept in somewhat frequent contact—Zachary, as busy and preoccupied as he was between school, work, his poor heath, and the expectations of him as the Haldane heir could be rather sporadic in his contact but Rhiain called her daily regardless of what was going on in her life. It was about that time of day again and Marin was heading to her office to receive the call.            

The phone was still ringing when she opened the door. She quickly set her tablet down on the desk and sat in her chair, swiping the holo-screen that was projected before her to answer the call as she did so. Rhiain's face appeared on the screen, pale and a little drawn, dark spots under her eyes indicating a lack of sleep. Her hair, usually meticulously groomed, had been thrown into a sloppy ponytail. Still, the young woman smiled brightly, almost as though she thought Marin would not notice.            

"Hi, Mum," she said. Zachary, who was old enough to remember his parents, even if vaguely, called Marin "Aunt Marin" or, more recently, just "Marin" but Rhiain had always called her "Mum". It had been a point of tension between the siblings, one of the only ones between children who rarely fought, but they had eventually agreed to disagree rather than let it ruin their relationship.            

"What's the matter?" Marin asked immediately.            

"Nothing," Rhiain replied, smiling a little bigger, as if that would convince Marin.            

Marin stared at the younger woman in silence for a few moments, pale eyebrow raised and lips pursed. "What's the matter?" she asked again.            

" _Fine_ ," Rhiain replied, letting out a sigh of defeat. She looked down then back up at Marin. "It's Zack. He's not listening to reason. You know he just got out of the hospital, right?"           

Marin nodded. Zachary had called her two days before when he got home.            

"Well, it was really bad this time. Worse than before."            

Marin nodded again, she had heard that as well, from the older rebels who had entreated once more her to help convince Zachary to get married.            

"And now he's got this idea in his head that he's going to Aelia to meet with protestors over there..." Rhiain paused, then huffed, "Over my dead body."            

"Rhi... Your brother is a grown man. He can make his own decisions. I'm not saying they are good decisions, but you cannot make them for him."            

"Like _hell_ I can't!" Rhiain exclaimed, banging her hands on the table. She immediately flinched at Marin's glare. "Sorry," she said.            

"That sort of language is beneath you, Rhiain."            

"I know, I know," Rhiain said. "But it's so frustrating. It's like he doesn't even see the danger at all. Before, we had the excuse that it was all theoretical but...after Justin..." She trailed off and looked down.            

Justin Baker was not yet a year dead. He had been arrested along with a group of protesters and a routine DNA test had revealed him as a deryni. The other protesters were released shortly thereafter. Justin had been executed.            

The protest was not unlike the events Zachary was known to frequent. Rhiain was convinced that, in watching Justin's public death, she had seen her brother's future. Zack scoffed at the idea, believing his condition would kill him long before the Empire could and, if by some chance the Aelians got him, he would not be losing much off his lifespan anyway.            

"You can't stop living just because of what _might_ happen," Marin said. "If you try to live like that, you'll never do anything."            

"But you don't have to take unreasonable risks either," Rhiain said.            

"Are you going to quit the rebels, then?"            

"That's different," Rhiain answered indignantly.            

"It's riskier than what Zachary is doing," Marin said. "If you continue doing what you're doing and you get caught... They'd kill you even if you were human. Look at what happened to your parents. They were never tested." The pain of their deaths had faded but it had never really left Marin in a way Rhiain, who did not remember her parents, could not understand.            

"But I _have_ to do this. The Aelians need to be... Something has to change here and it's not going to happen because someone holds up a sign," Rhiain said.            

"And your brother believes it can be done without violence," Marin pointed out. "Don't you want to give him the chance to try?"            

"You believe that I _want_ violence?" Rhiain asked. "Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't want to hurt people or kill them and I certainly don't want to be hurt or killed. If there was a way to end this peacefully, I'd jump on it in a second, but look at our situation. Look at what the Aelians do to us, what they have been doing to us for five hundred years. They're not going to change because we ask nicely. No, they're going to come out with guns and blow us all away. The only way we're going to even be able to start talking equality is to restore a free Gwynnedd and abolish the anti-deryni laws. The only way we're going to get that is if we can unify the pro-deryni people and the anti-Aelian people under one leader. Zack is supposed to be that leader but he's too busy trying to organize peaceful protests to think about being a proper king."            

"He doesn't want to be king."            

"I know he doesn't _want_ to be king and that's the problem. If I could step in and take that duty over for him, I would because I see how much it pains him, but I can't because the misogynistic old men who ran this show while we were kids, who are still running the show because Zack won't take the reins, have decided that I'm the wrong gender."            

"The Haldane Legacy runs strictly through the male line," Marin reminded her. "They've proven that."            

"But how important is that Legacy anyway? Zack's one of the best trained deryni I know. The Legacy isn't doing him any good."            

"But can you ensure that for future generations? Can you promise that all future generations will be as well-trained? We took a risk having the two of you trained. There is nothing to say future generations will be willing to do the same."            

"If we succeed here, there won't be any need for it to be a risk."            

"And if you don't? The Legacy is lost for future generations who may need it."            

"The Legacy is still lost if Zack doesn't have children."            

"We still have Keegan."            

Rhiain snorted. "Keegan, who is most likely a fraud. That's why he won't let us test his DNA. I wouldn't even believe he's deryni if I hadn't seen for myself."            

For safety purposes, all deryni were required to reveal themselves and every member of the rebels was required to submit themselves to having blocks put up to prevent them from talking about the rebellion and, specifically about the deryni in the group, with anyone who was not already privy to that information.            

"I believe that Keegan is who he says he is," Marin said.            

"Why, because he looks Haldane? That's completely irrational. There are thousands of people with that same hair and eye color combination who have no relation to the Haldanes whatsoever."            

"No, I trust him because I Truth Read him."           

"So did I and I'm telling you there's something strange going on there. He's keeping secrets."            

"We all keep secrets, Rhi."            

"I mean big, bad, ugly secrets. The kind that could ruin everything we've been working for."            

"If he's keeping those kind of secrets, we'll find out."            

"Before it's too late?"            

"So, what else is going on in Rhemuth?" Marin asked, abruptly changing the subject.            

"Tom's back from spending the holidays in Culdi," Rhiain said, going with the flow and abandoning her last line of thought. "Aunt Hannah sent us our Christmas gifts and food, lots of food. Uncle Carson sent orders, as usual."            

Hannah Ioanna's late sister, Evelyn, was Rhiain and Zachary's mother. Her husband, Carson had been good friends with Christopher, Evelyn's husband who had adopted a Haldane name in the last years of his life, though he still answered to "Christopher" in private.            

After the death of the couple, Hannah and Carson had both changed. Hannah had retreated into a fantasy of domesticity. She ignored the rebellion which had cost her a sister and focused on raising her son, Tomas. Carson had done the opposite, throwing himself into the cause to the point of ignoring his family and declaring himself regent, a decision that went uncontested in the chaos that followed Christopher's death. Neither had made any effort to get close to the orphans, whom they left in Marin's care. Over the years, Hannah had made token efforts with gifts and Carson had constantly sent orders on how the children were to be raised out of fear that they would not grow into the soldiers the cause required. In Zachary, at least, Carson's worst fears had been realized and, without Zack, Rhiain was all but useless to Carson because he was one of the "misogynistic old men" that Rhiain had mentioned.            

"How is Tomas?" Marin asked, side-stepping the issue of his parents.            

"Tom's well enough, I suppose," Rhiain replied with a shrug. She liked her cousin but they were not particularly close. Despite their shared cause and shared heritage as deryni, Rhiain could not make herself be Tomas's friend.            

"And the others in Rhemuth?" Marin asked, continuing to push the conversation away from delicate topics.            

"Well, everything's been about normal. Well, no, actually, Luke left a few days ago for Aelia. His cousin's over there or something and needed the help. I kind of wish he hadn't needed to go, though. I miss him."            

Luke MacKenzie was a borderer by name but little else in appearance or temperament. He was well liked by everyone, especially Rhiain who felt a close, daughterly bond with him, though she had never ventured into calling him "Dad" the way she called Marin "Mum". Marin was, oddly enough, the only one who could not stand the man. He had given her no reason to dislike him, had never been anything but kind and polite to her but his very presence made her skin crawl. She swore there was something off about him, but no one else noticed.            

"I'm sorry to hear that," Marin said, not really able to put much weight behind her words and glad that her feelings could not be read over such a distance.            

"But Alec's still here, so that's a plus," Rhiain added, referring to Luke's son. Marin had none of the same problems with the son which she had with the father, in fact she quite liked the boy. Noticing the blush that rose to Rhiain's cheeks when she mentioned Alec, reminded Marin that she could not afford to praise him too much because she was afraid Rhiain was well on her way to falling in love and Marin had it on good authority that Alec was happily married to a woman who worked in Aelia.           

"Your uncle thinks he's reckless."            

"That's because Uncle Carson sits on his...butt in Culdi and doesn't have a clue what's going on here in Rhemuth. If we listened to everything Uncle Carson says, we wouldn't do anything."            

"Your uncle isn't as young as he used to be. He's getting older and it's harder to keep up."             "Old schmold," Rhiain replied. "Luke's no younger than Uncle Carson and he's right on the front lines with the rest of us in Rhemuth and in Aelia. Caleb's even older yet. I don't know how much, though."            

"Caleb is Luke's cousin?"            

"Mmhm," Rhiain replied. "I haven't met him in person, though he's made calls like this," she swept her arm to indicate the mode of communication she and Marin were using, "to us in Rhemuth. I think he's a good leader too, but not the type Uncle Carson would approve of. You should see his wife, too, she's gorgeous. It's unfair. She's got to be about forty and she still looks better than most twenty-year-olds."            

"What's her name?"

“Stasia, I think,” Rhiain said. “It’s short for something. Maybe Anastasia. I don’t know where she’s from originally.”

“Hm, never heard of her, or her husband. They live in Aelia?”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard at least. They supposedly report back on the situation in the capital of our overlords’ great empire. They are also in contact with some anti-Imperial groups in other provinces. I guess the thought is that if we all revolt at the same time, the Empire will just collapse.”

Marin sniffed. “They’ve got their work cut out for them. It can’t be easy to coordinate a plan on such a large scale, even if everyone’s working for the same thing. Sometimes I think…” Marin realized that she was about to say something unwise and stopped talking, automatically shuttering down her Shields, even though Rhiain was too far away to send a probe.

“You think what?”

“It’s nothing, Rhi,” she said. “Nothing important.”

“You don’t think we’re all working for the same goal?”

“It’s not that,” Marin said. “Not exactly, at least. Never mind. How’s your friend, Kathy…Katie?” She sighed as Rhiain made a face, indicating that she was not getting any closer to the correct name. “You know, the energetic one, your roommate?”

“Katherine?”

“Yes, dear Katherine.”

“Kat’s good. I keep waiting for her to get sick of us, you know? It can’t be easy for her to be one of the few rebels in Rhemuth who’s human. Well, not for long anymore, though. Did I tell you about her boyfriend?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“His name is Pip, I mean, Philippe.”

“An Aelian name.”

“Yeah, and he’s about as human as they come but he’s sympathetic to the cause. I think he feels closer to us than he does to the other Aelians. He’s against imperialism in general so that drew him towards Kat and she’s convinced him that deryni aren’t evil monsters. I don’t think he’s entirely comfortable with us though. I’ll be interested to see how he reacts when he finds out exactly how many of us there are.”

“What do you mean?”

“Kat asked for permission to induct him into our ranks and Zack gave it, with Alec’s consent, of course. That’s just about necessary these days since Zack keeps himself out of the loop on what we’re doing. It’s like it’s on purpose.”

“I’m sure it’s not.”

“It doesn’t really matter if it is or not,” Rhiain sighed. “The result’s the same.”

In the background, Marin could hear Rhiain’s roommate, Natania Kamil, calling that dinner was ready.

“Well, I’d better go,” Rhiain said. “Tania’s making supper…Should be good.” She grinned briefly.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“All right. Have a good supper. I love you.”

“Love you, too. Bye.”

“Good bye.”

The screen went dark as Rhiain signed off. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. She had relied on Marin so much in the past, they had been so close, but, since she had moved to Rhemuth, she felt like her conversations with Marin were growing more and more strained. Back home, she had always been able to feel Marin’s love and support even when they disagreed but without that security in their long distance communication, Rhiain found herself doubting every word that left her godmother’s mouth, every expression on her face. How could humans be so trusting when they were so lacking in senses?

“Are you coming to the table or not?” Like there. Even before Rhiain could register that Katherine had been sent to goad her to the table or the meaning of the words or even the tone in her friend’s voice, she could sense the emotions pouring out. There was irritation there, more than was usual for Katherine even on a bad day. Something must have just happened to upset her. She did not want to talk about it right now but she might in a little while. Rhiain hoped to Heaven that it did not have anything to do with Philippe.

“Yes, I’m coming,” she answered, pulling herself up. Katherine was already out of sight, walking towards the kitchen.

The others were already at the table when Rhiain arrived in the kitchen and slid herself into her usual seat. They were almost like a family, a family of four women in their twenties. Natania led them in their pre-dinner prayer and then promptly began dishing out the food.

“Wow, it smells amazing,” Rhiain said, in hopes that complimenting the chef would lead to a larger portion. She swore to herself that it would all be worked off during her planned trip to the gym after buying her school books tomorrow.

“It’s just lasagna,” Katherine pointed out sourly.

“But it’s Tania’s lasagna, which makes all the difference.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Natania warned. Rhiain made a sheepish grin, having been found out, and accepted her plate back from Natania with no more or less on it than the others had received.

They fell into silence once the plates were passed out and all began to eat.

“So, uh, were you still planning on coming with me to get our books tomorrow?” Rhiain asked Katherine once she had slowed eating.

“Oh, yeah,” Katherine answered unenthusiastically.

“I’m going to meet Zack afterward for lunch. You’re invited, if you want to come.”

“Zack’s such a nice guy,” Katherine observed listlessly.

“Yeah, he’s a real sweetheart,” Rhiain said with an uncomfortable laugh. She looked to the others for help. _Do either of you know what this is about?_

_She was like this when she returned home this afternoon_ , Natania supplied in answer to the telepathic question.

_Do you suppose it’s about Philippe?_ Brielle mused.

_I hope not,_ Rhiain answered. _She’ll be inconsolable if they break up. And after all the trouble she went through to get him invited into the group, too. It would be a major security breach._

_And that’s what Rhiain’s really worried about,_ Brielle noted, looking into her lasagna with a small smile.

_I can’t be worried about both Kat_ and _the revolution? There are_ lives _at stake here._

“This is what I hate about deryni,” Katherine ground out, looking down at her plate. “Normal people would at least have the decency to wait until I was out of the room to talk behind my back!” She got up and stormed off to her room, leaving her food completely untouched and the three deryni staring after her, dumbstruck.

Rhiain sighed and pushed her seat back from the table. “I’ll go talk to her,” she said. The other two sent her thoughts of affirmation and encouragement. They knew that Rhiain had the best chance of getting through to their human companion and that allowing her to handle Katherine on her own was the best course of action. Rhiain was, after all, the one who had drawn Katherine into their world of magic and intrigue and she was still the only deryni that Katherine truly trusted.

“Kat, I’m sorry,” she said, knocking on the door to Katherine’s room. “I didn’t mean, _we_ didn’t mean to seem like we were talking behind your back. There wasn’t anything that we said that we would be ashamed to say to your face. But it did seem like we were talking behind your back, and we’re sorry. _I’m_ sorry.”

Katherine opened the door a crack and peeked out with her tear-stained face. “You mean you guys really _were_ talking behind my back?” she asked.

“Well, yeah,” Rhiain said, caught off guard by the accuracy of Katherine’s blind guess. “But!” she added as Katherine began to slam her door closed again, “But we really didn’t say anything that we couldn’t have said out loud. We just forgot whether we were really saying it out loud or if it was just mindspeak. You know how we can get. Here, I’ll tell you what we said. We said we were worried about you because you seem unhappy and I am concerned that it might have something to do with Philippe.”

Katherine caught the door before it closed and considered what Rhiain had to say, then opened the door just wide enough for her friend to enter.

“I’m sorry,” she said, closing the door behind Rhiain. “I must be acting like such a child.”

“It’s fine,” Rhiain answered. “It’s just that we deryni are so sensitive to what those around us are feeling, especially those close to us. It’s even harder since you’re human, so you can’t shield us from it, if you wanted to.”

“I’m sorry,” Katherine repeated.

“It’s fine,” Rhiain said again. “It’s normal to have feelings. If anything, we’re the weird ones for being so sensitive. Now, is there anything I can do to help?”

“I doubt it,” Katherine answered. “I broke up with Pip today.”

“Oh, Kat,” was all Rhiain could think to say with her mind whirling over all the implications for the future. She recovered herself quickly and asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” Katherine replied. “It doesn’t matter, anyway.”

“Of course it does!” Rhiain insisted.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with how trustworthy he is,” Katherine said. “And I want you to know that I still think he should be allowed to join the group. If anything, it was his trustworthiness that made me decide to break up with him.”

“I don’t quite follow.”

“I mean, he’s trustworthy and loyal… _to the group_ , not to our relationship. I just decided that, if being in a relationship with him made me jealous of our cause, maybe I shouldn’t be in a relationship with him. Of course, it was that stupid, bratty Aelian prince I felt the most jealous of, since he’ll be monopolizing Pip’s time for the foreseeable future.”

“Prince Joseph?”

“Yeah, the idiot one.”

“I wasn’t aware that Philippe was so close to the prince.”

“It’s the governor’s idea, not Pip’s. He wants to win royal favor by engineering a friendship between Pip and His Royal Idiocy. Like they were in kindergarten or something. Pip said he should stay away from us so long as he’s designated the prince’s playmate. And he’s right, it’s probably better for us if he stays away but then I got all mad and I said that it would be better if he stayed away for good and that I was breaking up with him, which wasn’t what I wanted to say at all but…you know me…” Katherine laughed bitterly. “After thinking about it, I decided that breaking up really is the right thing to do but I didn’t do it right at all. I should sit down and talk it all over with him, not that I’ll get a chance now that the prince is here. Then again, I don’t really want to talk to him. I don’t even want to see him right now.”

Katherine stopped talking and looked intently at Rhiain, who had been silently listening to her talk for too long.

“What?” Rhiain asked as it became clear that Katherine would not continue.

“You’re not doing any of that deryni mood changing stuff, are you?” Katherine asked. “I mean, it’s cool that I’m feeling more level-headed about all of this now but you know I don’t like it when you deryni go messing around in my head.”

“I didn’t do anything, honest,” Rhiain replied. “I keep telling you that, since you’re human, I have to touch you in order to use any of my skills on you.” That might not have been exactly true but Rhiain was determined to keep it true from Katherine’s perspective.

“I know but I’ll probably never understand all of this deryni stuff and, when it seems like you’re coming up with some new power every two days, I sometimes get, I don’t know, worried that you’re just telling me what I want to hear because you don’t think I’ll understand or you think that you’ll scare me away.”

Rhiain forced a smile to deflect from how close her human friend had come to the truth—Katherine’s intuition was on a roll—and said, “This was all good, old-fashioned, human getting it off your chest. You don’t need to be talking to a deryni to feel better after letting out whatever’s been eating you. If you did, deryni would be much more popular, dontcha think?” She laughed and Katherine quickly joined in.

“You should go back to supper,” Katherine said as the laughing died down. “You don’t want to miss out on Natania’s lasagna, do you?”

“You’re not coming?”

“No, I’m not really hungry right now.”

“Are you sure?” Rhiain asked.

“I’m fine,” Katherine answered and Rhiain wished that she had Truth Read her friend’s answer. She knew that it was intrusive and pointless—Katherine knew better than to purposefully lie to a deryni—but she could not repress her craving for just a little more reassurance, a little more proof that she could trust the people around her.

“All right,” she said, reluctantly casting her regret down to the dungeons of her mind to be forgotten, and placed her hand on the door handle. “I’m sure Tania will save you some in case you change your mind later. Just don’t be like Brielle and stomp around the apartment like an elephant at three in the morning.” She grinned again to lighten the mood.

“I always thought that was you,” Katherine teased back.

Rhiain placed a hand on her chest in mock offense. “ _I_ am a bona fide delicate and graceful princess; I do not stomp. Just ask my mum about the pea incident.” She opened the door.

“Rhiain?” Katherine asked. “Everything’s going to be all right, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is,” Rhiain answered. She turned to meet Katherine square in the eye and then closed the door to Katherine’s room behind her.


End file.
